Individual reflection on academic integrity
Academic integrity is the ethical policy in academic work that concerns every academician including students. Before understanding what academic integrity is, I admit that I broke every rule. For instance, whenever we were given assignments, I would use ideas and information from course materials such as textbooks without crediting the source. In my understanding, I believed the educator already understood that students have to use the relevant course materials to complete the assignments. Fortunately, the professor realized the mistake and explained to us the importance of observing fundamental values in academics. I was embarrassed that all along I have been committing grave mistakes in the academic world. Nowadays, I am honest and I take responsibility in every situation to ensure that I acknowledge every source of information I use. From my experience, I realized that most students commit the crime unknowingly or accidentally. Hence, creating awareness remains the most potent tool to ensuring academic integrity is upheld.
Journal Forum Post
Academic integrity refers to the demonstration of honesty and absolute devotion to observe high moral conduct in an academic setting. The practice of academic integrity is relevant in all academic institutions but usually most appropriate in institutions of higher learning and beyond. An individual with academic integrity has the courage, to be honest, respectful, and responsible even in complex academic situations (McHaney, Cronan, & Douglas, 2016). For instance, honest students credit the contributions of other people whenever they use their ideas or information even with minor assignments. By doing so, one’s academic work becomes trustable. There is honor in trusted academic work. One of the most important ways to avoid academic dishonesty is by understanding that it amounts to plagiarism and cheating. Another strategy is to have sufficient time to research, cite, and reference the work accordingly. Lastly, one has to associate with fellow students with high academic integrity.
Reference
McHaney, R., Cronan, T. P., & Douglas, D. E. (2016). Academic integrity: Information systems education perspective. Journal of Information Systems Education, 27(3), 153-158.